New Delhi, July 23: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yogendra Yadav, on Wednesday expressed his disappointment over his party not contesting assembly elections in Haryana , but maintained that the state unit won’t go ahead, unless its top leadership arrives at the decision in unanimity.

“Naturally, I am disappointed; workers are calling me to express their anger and disappointment. At the same time in a democratic party one cannot say that one’s will should prevail. Arvind is not saying I have a veto. It is Haryana leadership which is saying that unless the party chief is with us we do not want to contest; it’s a different situation,” Yadav told ANI.

“As of now no final decision has been taken. Haryana state executive has simply passed a resolution yesterday saying, unless the national leadership is on board there is no possibility of contesting elections in Haryana,” Yadav said.

“The situation in Haryana is that 95 percent of volunteers have voted to say they want elections, Haryana leadership wants elections, national executive gave the permission, but our national leadership including AAP chief is of the opinion is that this is not a wise move. And my colleagues in Haryana are of the view that unless Arvind and other colleagues are on board there is no point in contesting elections in that kind of a situation. That is to be put before national executive, where the final decision will be taken,” he added.

“Haryana state executive is sending its report to national executive and I am sure the latter will consider it. I do want to clarify that simply because 95 percent volunteers have this opinion does not necessarily mean that the party must take this decision. There are other things to be considered. Our party chief has argued that recovering Delhi is our supreme priority and before we have elections in Delhi we should not participate elsewhere. There is a fair point there, it may be overstated, but there is a point in what he says. A party has to balance this things out and take a final decision,” he further added.

“My personal opinion is that we should contest elections, I agree with the volunteers that having contested elections once we have no option but to try and retain the ground that we have to expand it. Otherwise, what do we say to those five lakh people who voted for us? What would our volunteers do when the elections take place? Are we going to miss this opportunity to carry our message to the people of Haryana. So, I personally do think that we should contest election. But my opinion is not the only thing that counts, and in a democratic organization it is possible that one could be overruled,” he said.

AAP’s Haryana unit passed a resolution on Tuesday stating that it was not in favour of fighting polls without the approval of the national leadership, referring to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s disinclination to fight the elections in Haryana.

Kejriwal had publicly said on two different occasions that he was not keen on fighting Haryana and Maharashtra state elections and that he wanted to focus on Delhi first. (ANI)